Projects and possibilities

As many of you who have followed this blog for awhile might realize, I love to take pictures. I am an enthusiastic picture-taker who knows little about photography, aware that point-and-shoot cameras and iPhoto's ability to enhance pictures where I've made little mistakes can allow me to elicit some ooohs and aaahs with pictures like the one above.

But the time is coming when I want to know how to take REAL pictures. I've been inspired by many of the bloggers I follow, but none quite so much as Hilary on The Smitten Image. Sometimes I will fall into one of her pictures in appreciation of an emotion her pictures elicit in me. So I sent her an email and asked for advice, what kind of camera does she use, etc., etc. She sent me a very detailed and explicit response, with the admonition to explore the possibilities of the camera I own at the moment. Fortunately for me, Hilary believes that Canon PowerShot cameras are the way to go (unless I want to get really fancy and go to a digital SLR), which just happens to be the camera I own right now!

I bought a camera with a 10X optical zoom so I could take some bird pictures, which I have done. It's a Canon PowerShot SX110IS and I have occasionally taken it off the "auto" feature to explore some of the things it can do, but I almost always drift back to the auto button because I really don't know what the difference is between the aperture and shutter speed. Why should I bother if I can fix the little mistakes after the fact? Well, the reason I'd like to take on this project is to be able to create a mood and evoke an emotional response in the viewer, much like Hilary's pictures do for me. It's my latest project and I suspect I can become a passionate photographer without spending a dime!

Yesterday, Memorial Day, Smart Guy and I took a nice walk around Lake Padden, one of the excellent local parks in the area. In fact, just last week that is where the Senior Trailblazers went, and I snapped pictures with enthusiasm, as usual. Check them out here. The picture above was taken yesterday, brought home and cropped to show the lovely whorl of the unfurling fern. There is a 2.6-mile gentle trail around the lake, with benches placed in strategic spots for R&R. I saw this bench and noticed something had been placed on the platform.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that someone had brought a bouquet on this day to remember a young man who died in 2003, in his early thirties. It made me think of my son Chris, who died just a year earlier at the age of forty, and it seemed very fitting that I would see it on Memorial Day. The family of this young man has placed a bench at Lake Padden with a plaque for those, like me, to ponder his life.

The day was cloudy in the morning with a little rain, but by the time we were getting in the car to return home, the sun was beginning to break through and lift my spirits. And then I saw a mother and her brood out having breakfast, pointing me toward realizing the perfection of life's continuing bounty.

:-)